Venezuela has agreed to pay a $2 billion settlement to US oil giant ConocoPhillips, to stop the seizure of the South American nation's assets, the American firm announced Monday. PDVSA, the state oil company once the crown jewel of Venezuela's now imploding economy, will make initial...

"There is only one way to do this particular job," outgoing UN rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said Monday, urging his successor not to waver from publicly condemning serious abuses. "We are not in the silence business here," said Zeid, who steps down as the United Nations High...

Rio de Janeiro's drug war hit a bloody crescendo Monday when at least 14 people were reported killed in a huge operation by soldiers in impoverished favelas and during a rush-hour police car chase. The military command heading security in Brazil's second biggest city said eight people...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- One person was killed and another was wounded in a landmine explosion in northeastern Hasaka province, local activist said Monday. The two brothers, who work in fuel smuggling, were escaping the Asayish, the Kurdish domestic security south of Hasaka city. One the...

President Donald Trump's administration has rejected Turkey's offer to condition the release of an American pastor on clearing a top Turkish bank of billions of dollars in US fines, media reported Monday. Washington and Ankara are locked in a bitter feud over the nearly two-year jailing of...

French energy giant Total has officially quit its multi-billion-dollar gas project in Iran, Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said on Monday, following the reimposition of the first phase of US sanctions. "Total has officially left the agreement for the development of phase 11 of South...

Receding flood waters left Indian troops and rescuers the grim task Monday of hunting for bodies left by the worst monsoon in a century in Kerala state as the death toll rose above 400. With nearly three quarters of a million people packed into relief camps in the southern state, known for...

Beleaguered Venezuelans braced Monday for the rollout of President Nicolas Maduro's radical new plan to curb the spiraling hyperinflation that has thrown their oil-rich, cash-poor nation into turmoil. Caracas is issuing new banknotes after lopping five zeroes off the crippled bolivar,...

Afghanistan was waiting Monday for a Taliban response to President Ashraf Ghani's suggestion of a three-month ceasefire, an offer welcomed by the United States and NATO after 17 years of war. Ghani unveiled the government?s latest gambit during an Independence Day address late Sunday,...

Ethiopia on Sunday inaugurated a power plant which converts waste into energy, next to a filthy open-air dump in Addis Ababa where a landslide last year killed more than 110 people. Named Reppie, the facility is the first of its kind in Africa, according to the government and the...

A fire in a residential building near Paris on Sunday left seven people with serious injuries including five children who were in a "life-threatening" condition, firefighters said. A dozen police officers were also slightly hurt in the blaze in Aubervilliers, north of Paris, which was...

New signing Alassane Plea, Thorgan Hazard and Raffael all claimed hat-tricks as Borussia Moenchengladbach romped to a 11-1 win at minnows Hastedt in the German Cup on Sunday. Gladbach raced into a 3-0 lead with just 15 minutes gone at fifth-tier Hastedt, in the suburbs of Bremen, and...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- It might be traced back the history of Dummar, the northwestern district of Damascus, and its residents’ old, as well as, the ongoing conflict with the Assad Family. Given the neighbourhood’s strategic localization proximate to highly sensitive areas (The Presidential palace...

Italy's far-right interior minister threatened Sunday to send "back to Libya" nearly 180 people stranded for three days on an Italian coastguard ship if the EU did not step in to resolve another migrant row with Malta. The 177 people have been sat off the coast of the Italian island of...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- A Syrian refugee has been 'slashed' in mass knife brawl in the Turkish province of Şanlıurfa, relatives told Zaman al-Wasl Sunday. The relatives have claimed that 10 Syrian refugees from the northern province Hasaka were involved in the mass brawl in the border town of...

Another strong earthquake has struck near the Indonesian tourist island of Lombok. The U.S. Geological Survey says the magnitude 6.9 quake struck Sunday night at a depth of 20 kilometers. Indonesia's Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said no Tsunami warning after the quake....

US-backed forces have repelled a raid by the Islamic State group targeting barracks housing American and French troops in eastern Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Saturday. The Syrian Democratic Forces and the US-led coalition supporting them were on high alert after...

Italian Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli Sunday called for sanctions against Malta, accusing it of not rescuing migrant boats in the Mediterranean and leaving the burden to Italy, in the latest row between the two countries over the issue. Toninelli said on Twitter the European Union...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- The Executive Head of Syrian Democratic Council said the Kurdish-led forces might merge in the regime forces after she revealed her top meeting with Bashar al-Assad that took place in Damascus two weeks ago. Ilham Ahmed told BBC Arabic on Saturday that the US-backed...

Iranian media is reporting that authorities have detained a human rights lawyer who planned a sit-in protest in front of parliament. The Sunday report by the daily Arman says police detained Ghasem Sholeh-Saadi after he appeared outside parliament on Saturday in an "illegal gathering."...